Eating Real Food for a Healthy Lifestyle

Herb Roasted Rotisserie Chicken & R2 My Kitchen Droid

I’ve been wanting to try something in my “new” rotisserie, so I thought I’d start with an easy roasted chicken. I recently received this awesome vintage Sunbeam carousel rotisserie on Free-cycle. I love mid-century design in general, but this one looks like something out of Star Wars to boot. It’s like having my own personal kitchen droid! I have been affectionately calling it R2 (yes, I am a geek). Not only is he cute as a button, but R2 makes damn good chicken!

Vintage Sunbeam carousel rotisserie a.k.a R2 my kitchen droid

The drip pan doesn’t detach from this rotisserie and I was afraid it was going to be a pain in the butt to clean, but it wasn’t too bad. The drippings didn’t burn at all. They just poured right out and cleaned up nicely with a sponge. I saved the juices because I’m going to attempt to make Paleo Herb Gravy from the Nom Nom Paleo site using some of the drippings —- plus I paid a small fortune for an organic free-range chicken and I’m not about to waste any part of it! If you don’t have a rotisserie, check to see if your mom or grandma has one sitting around in the basement and give it a whirl. You might even get lucky and find a vintage R2 of your own! If you prefer, you could just roast it in the oven, but that’s not nearly as much fun.

Remove the giblet bag if there is one. If you like giblets, more power to you; enjoy them however you like. I can’t stand organ meat, but I save them to add to my next batch of chicken stock or to cook up for the dog. He thinks they are the bee’s knees.

Rinse chicken and pat dry, inside and out, with a paper towel. Set chicken aside on a plate.

In a small bowl combine the coconut oil and dry herbs. Moosh it together with the back of a spoon (or your fingers) to break apart the coconut oil and fully mix in the herbs. Rub the herb mix all over the chicken. Be sure to rub some under the skin on the breast as well. If you are using a bigger bird, you may need more herbs and oil.

Place the onion and garlic inside of the chicken and place chicken in your rotisserie or roasting pan and adjust roasting time and temp for your bird size and cooking method. R2 cooked my 4.25 pound chicken in about 1 hour. Based on Sunbeam’s cooking chart I set my timer for about 1 hour 10 minutes, but that was just a smidge too long. The chicken was still juicy but starting to dry a touch. One hour would have been perfect.

Overall, the flavor was fabulous and the chicken practically fell off the bones. The skin on the breast was nice and crispy — probably from the herb/oil mix I put under the skin. I definitely rate my first rotisserie chicken as a success! I’m sure this is just the beginning of a long, beautiful relationship between me and R2. I’d rather be starting a long, beautiful relationship with Harrison Ford, but that’s a story for a different blog.

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2 thoughts on “Herb Roasted Rotisserie Chicken & R2 My Kitchen Droid”

I love how you used the phrase “bees knees”–very retro, and a very fitting detail for your story about retro equipment! You bring a touch of humor to recipe-writing, and that’s not an easy thing to do. Bravo!